Six DAC Comparison
I am in the middle of comparing the sound of six different DACs in my system. I own them all (I know weird) but one of them is still within a trial/return timeframe.
Not to share specific comparisons today, but a couple of observations so far are that first, they all definitely sound different from each other. On one hand, they all sound pretty good and play what is fed to them without significant flaws but on the other hand there are definite sonic differences that make it easy to understand how a person might like the sound of some of them while not liking others.
Second, raises the observation that most of them must be doing something to shape the sound in the manner the designer intended since one of the DACs, a Benchmark DAC3 HGA, was described by John Atkinson of Stereophile as providing "state-of-the-art measured performance." In the review, JA closed the measurements section by writing, "All I can say is "Wow!" I have also owned the Tambaqui (not in my current comparison), which also measured well ("The Mola Mola Tambaqui offers state-of-the-digital-art measured performance." - JA). The Benchmark reminds me sonically of the Tambaqui, both of which are excellent sounding DACs.
My point is that if the Benchmark is providing "state-of-the-art measured performance," then one could reasonably presume that the other five DACs, which sound different from the Benchmark, do not share similar ’state-of-the-art" measurements and are doing something to subtly or not so subtly alter the sound. Whether a person likes what they hear is a different issue.
@audioman58 You have now become the new audiotroy with self-serving and completely shameless self promotion. |
Hey soux you could not be more wrong ,I help people with msay things with products I don’t own or sell ,your ignorance is apparent , if you read. The 1000s of input regarding audio, I get emails and phone calls weekly .Having owned a Audio store for over a decade and know modding well ,in 40 years in Audio systems synergy is more important then monies. I not once ever stated Denafrips was the best ,I it is a excellent product and great value ,is this wrong ? I have told many on which products maybe a good fit for their Audio system even if they don’t spent a $ Dime , just loook at my feedbacks from buyers , have a good day !! |
Based on my careful reading of this extraordinary thread, I've reached out to Benjamin, and purchased a Mystique X '24. So hats off to @mitch2 for a really informative and thoughtful analysis of the top players in what can be considered the semi-affordable realm. Now the fun part: my CEC transport hooks up just fine via AES / EBU, but when attempting to override the internal DAC in my HiFi Rose 150B, the latter device refuses to recognize the new DAC. And yes, I've triple checked all the connections and selected USB out on the "in/out" selection panel; even swapped in a different cable to rule out a bad connection. Has anyone successfully overcome the Rose 150B's apparent inability to "see" the Mystique via USB? Or is my only option to pick up an RCA coax and avoid the USB connection altogether? Please do not suggest selling the Rose and picking up another streamer, as I'm pretty tapped out by this and a couple of other chunky purchases this year, and I rather like the touchscreen ease of ops on the Rose. If this is an inappropriate hijack, mods should feel free to delete. Thanks! |
@mitch2 phenomenal insight into these DACs. Appreciate your effort. Anyone using the Mojo Mystique know what USB receiver it uses ? I run an optimized Windows platform on my diy server and need Windows driver. Mojo mentions to download the driver from JL Sounds website but there are different versions of the driver available. Since Mojo mentions JL Sounds, it must be using the USB to I2S bridge internally which is an excellent USB receiver used in Lampizator DACs I used to own at some point. Many DAC designers optimizes one input over the other - some sounds better over AES/SPDIF, while others take a great deal of effort and care in designing a better USB input with high speed isolators, separate low jitter clocks, etc. I think I read somewhere before that Mojo prefers AES/SPDIF input over USB but it would be interesting to know from actual users how the USB in Mystique compares to AES/SPDIF.
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